Github Repository: QLD Coastal Zones - GPX files used in Ocpn_Draw Layers

Dave, change this as you wish. See the first screenshot that I used Media Manager to upload and then “inserted” into the text. The Editor's Manual is here Editor Manual under Dev Manual. You will find an item about Media Manager that will be helpful I hope.

Ahoy OpenCPNers with an interest in the QLD coastline of Australia.

The Australian Hydrographic Charts do not show the different fishing zones along the QLD coast, for the relevant marine parks.

So, I have uploaded the GPS coordinates provided by the QLD Government into the Draw plugin and created .gpx files of each coloured zone. These zones are named following the convention in the Marine Parks handouts. Each group of zones relate to the latitude of the first waypoint of the zone, ie GBRMP-11-xxxx are Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks with their most NW boundary point in an area between Lat 11 and Lat 12.

My intention personally is to load these into ODraw as a persistent layer which gives the ability to toggle on/off. From here you can click the list contents button and the zones are then listed in the Paths tab and the texts are listed in the OD Points tab.

Some of these zones follow the low tide mark along coast lines and I have tried to represent this as best as possible.

Jon Gough has advanced ODraw considerably and I recommend anyone interested upgrade to the latest version available, I have been using 1.6.80+ but Jon would be the go-to for finding your best options, as these later versions only run on OpenCPN 5. Also visit the Draw manual which is very in depth with good screen shots.

Some slower computers may struggle with displaying the full zones so each can be broken into smaller groups or folders. These .gpx files are broken down into areas according to the naming convention. Because of its vastness the Great Barrier Reef is broken down into the LAT areas and each file contains all of the colours for that area. Moreton Bay has been left in the coloured groups and also 1 combined file of all colours. This Moreton Bay all colours (MBMP-ALL COLOURS) works well for me on a Dell Latitude-E6430.

Also, colours can be changed easily by editing the files with a text editor and reassigning the RGB values to suit your needs, no need to do this within the GUI for each individual zone. Just use a spreadsheet for an example to chose the colour you like and get the RGB value from there. Then replace the existing values in the .gpx files with your new desired values for all the zones in one go.

The naming convention below is how I intend to display the .gpx files.

Great Sandy Straits to follow when time permits.

• GBRMP-10 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-11 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-12 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-13 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-14 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-15 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-16 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-17 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-18 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-19 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-20 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-21 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-22 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-23 ALL COLOURS
• GBRMP-24 ALL COLOURS
• MBCP-ALL Yellow
• MBGU-ALL Lt Blue
• MBHP-ALL Blue
• MBMP-ALL Green
• MBMP-ALL COLOURS

Also any help from the “O” community on linking users to this project would be much appreciated.

Have a look here: https://github.com/redog666/qld-coastal-zones

Activities Guide is what is allowed in each zone colour.

• GBRMP = Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GREEN)
• GBRHP = Great Barrier Reef Habitat Protection (BLUE)
• GBRCZ = Great Barrier Reef Conservation Zone (YELLOW)
• GBRBZ = Great Barrier Reef Buffer Zone (OLIVE)
• GBRSR = Great Barrier Reef Scientific Research (ORANGE)
• GBRPZ = Great Barrier Reef Preservation Zone (PINK)
• GSMP = Great Sandy Marine Park
• MBMP = Moreton Bay Marine Park (GREEN)
• MBCP = Moreton Bay Conservation Park (YELLOW)
• MBHP = Moreton Bay Habitat Protection (BLUE)
• MBGU = Moreton Bay General Use (Lt BLUE)

First I load persistent layer from required .gpx file. Here you see the QLD coast with all zone colours for areas 10,11 and 12.

Persistant layers can be added here by clicking the New Persistant Layer button. Or you can paste a copy of your .gpx file into the draw Layers folder.

In linux found here: user/.opencpn/plugins/ocpn_draw_pi/Layers

In Windows:

While still in the layer tab click List Contents of the highlighted layer required. Now all of the individual zones of each colour, from the highlighted Layer will be displayed in the Paths tab and if the .gpx file contains text points, these are now displayed in the OD Points tab. This only works with one selected layer at a time, not multiple by using shift or Ctrl. If multiple layers are selected (and can be) only the top layer in the selection will be displayed.

Next click the Paths tab, here each can be turned on/off individually, by selecting/deselecting the eye in the Show column. These are the zones broken down to their colours and here is where people could save smaller groups or split up to suit an area of interest by using the export buttons. (Export All Visible or Export Selected) Careful using the “Export All Visible” button as it combines ALL visible in ALL 3 tabs. Here also a highlighted zone blinks on your screen to make it easier to see its location.(circled)

To have persistent layers load at startup you must tick the box in the General tab in Draw preferences. This feature is only available in newer versions of Draw. If using an older version, layers will load with the eye crossed out for all layers. Also in older versions if you load layer using “New persistent layer” button, delete layer means exactly that! Your file will be deleted from its location on your hard drive. Have backup.

Hope I haven't deviated from the manual with my instructions, but again if in doubt read the Draw-pi section of the manual.

Dave, It may be appropriate to provide a link to QLD Coastal Zone GPX from this page Chart Sources.